Great minds meet

Roberto Rodriguez / Amarillo Globe-NewsAmarillo Little Theatre cast members Kenan Dalley, left, and Jeffrey Pickens rehearse scenes from "Freud's Last Session", Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at the Amarillo Little Theatre Adventure Space. The play will be will run August 18-21 and August 25-28.

Amarillo physician and actor Jeffrey Pickens describes himself as a man of faith. Now, he’s playing one of history’s most famous atheists.

It’s a test of faith, but in a positive sense, Pickens said.

Pickens plays Dr. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, in “Freud’s Last Session” at the Amarillo Little Theatre Adventure Space. The play opens Friday following a preview performance Thursday.

“Freud’s Last Session” posits a hypothetical meeting of the minds between Freud and C.S. Lewis, the novelist, academic and lay theologian.

In the play, Freud has summoned Lewis to his office to discuss the novel, and the men argue, sometimes quite vociferously, about religion.

“He’s very curious about why someone who had been an atheist for so long, a proud practitioner of atheism, could suddenly convert to Christianity,” said Jeff Jarnagin, the show’s director.

“C.S. Lewis is one of the people in my college days and medical school days who really shaped my faith,” said Pickens, who had originally hoped to play Lewis in the show. “It’s hard to sit there and yell at him and expose the weaknesses of his arguments every night.

“But it gives you a chance to see the other point of view and strengthen yourself,” he said.

In fact, he said his faith has been strengthened by the play. “I haven’t had anything challenge me like this in a long, long time,” Pickens said. “I think that it’s good brain exercise and spiritual exercise.”